Delano soldiers meet a world away

1st Lieutenant Garret Litfin of Delano was walking around his base at Al Taquaadum, Iraq one day when he noticed a fellow soldier with a Minnesota National Guard patch on his sleeve.

Litfin stopped the gentleman to ask where he was from, and Dan McDonald said he was from a small town in Minnesota, just west of the Twin Cities, that Litfin had probably never heard of.

In a small world encounter, half a world away, both soldiers learned each other is from Delano.

After months away from friends and family, amidst the dangers of war, the coincidental meeting helped both soldiers feel a little bit closer to home.

Garret Litfin is a CH-46 helicopter pilot in the US Marine Corps. He pilots casualty evacuations and troop movement operations and has been deployed to Iraq since August.

Dan McDonald is a mechanic in the Army National Guard and works on a team responsible for recovering vehicles that have either been destroyed or are down and require maintenance. He has been in Iraq since March.